Kessler Syndrome minimisation techniques.

[XrayLima]

As enlightened space travelers I'm assuming most of us take our food wrappers, drinks cartons and expended boosters home with us after our trip to the Mun and beyond. Question is, how do you folks do it? Got any tricks you fancy sharing?

For me the 1st stage usually takes care of itself, 2nd stage usually has enough dv, a probe core and a couple of solar panels to enable it to de-orbit itself and I plan my transfers to directly intersect the target, then adjust after separation. I've even built a joining module with docking port-RCS tank/thrusters-probe body-docking port to connect the LM and CSM pieces of my Apollo copy that deorbits itself following CSM rotation and LM docking so it doesn't leave an engine sleeve floating out there.

That said 'Mun base crater' looks more and more like a skycrane graveyard and there is still junk building up, up there! So how do you folks clean up after yourselves and how much dv/weight/trouble do you go to? Or don't you bother, and it turns out I'm nuts?

XrayLima

[I_Killed_Jeb]

direct intercept and/or free return, i very rarely leave any junk

[sal_vager]

I generally try to crash my stages into things, like the Mun

If I can I deorbit stuff, either with probes or with retro engines, or by jettisoning them early.

Apollo style landers tend to stay on whatever planet I leave them on though as reminders, but I don't mind leaving a stage in orbit if it has some fuel and a docking port, I might want that fuel later.

Actually cleaning up old debris though is a lot of work unless you just end the flight via the tacking station or delete it from the save file, and actually scooping up debris for disposal is a very cool thing to do in KSP

[ZingidyZongxxx]

To be honest, I don't have a problem with just aborting debris from the tracking station. I usually just do that and pretend I had some explosives on board that I triggered from mission control.

[Rhomphaia]

To be honest, I don't have a problem with just aborting debris from the tracking station. I usually just do that and pretend I had some explosives on board that I triggered from mission control.

Blowing things up would hardly minimize Kessler syndrome. but if you want...

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/58957-Need-some-ideal-on-capturing-debris?p=794348#post794348

Usually I use probe cores or sepratrons.

[MistaX8]

When it comes to putting stuff into LKO I try to deorbit the debris, usually using probe cores, but anything more than that and I start putting more focus into just getting where I need to go. With everything I'm doing, it still doesn't leave LKO as messy as it was back when I first started playing and was struggling to get stuff into a stable orbit around Kerbin.

[Liowen]

Usually I use just enough dv to get myself into an orbit, dropping the last part of the launch stage back to the planet just before getting into a full orbit. My Mun rock main sail is dropped onto the surface of Mun usually being destroyed by the fall. This leaves my lander that returns and is recovered upon coming back to Kerbin. My interplanetary ship is going for a reusable aspect, the tug and lander will be able to be refueled in orbit of Kerbin, sending the refueling device back to the planet to be destroyed. So far the only "junk" I have on my test save, where I have been doing a lot as of right now, is my rover's deployment drone, and that can be destroyed by firing up the engines going up 20,000 m and letting it smash into the planet. One thing I would like to see possibly put in is remote detention devices. This way if you leave a piece that you know will not have a chance to be destroyed by any other means could be remotely blown up once you are X km from said item, think of a deadman switch based on range rather than someone holding a button.

I know you can go into the space center and clean the that way, but this would make it nice to clean those pieces that maybe left while you are still playing at that time.

[Tank Buddy]

When I go to the Mun or Minmus, or when interplanetary with a nearly spent stage, I set them on a direct impact trajectory or one that will degrade and de-orbit them. When I go to the Mun, I set up a collision course, face retrograde, decouple and burn retrograde to my desired orbit.

[Psycix]

In LKO, I assume orbit decay and terminate the tracking.

In other places, I send decoupled stages into a crash trajectory when possible, but only if I can spare the extra fuel.

Like decoupling a stage with a small amount of fuel in before circularising, or pumping a bit of fuel into an empty stage to finish an aerobrake preparation maneuver with the stage attached to make sure the debris goes through the atmosphere.

But a few empty tanks around Duna is not going to harm anyone, so I rarely go out of my way to prevent debris there.

The more ambitious the mission, the less I care about debris.

[Mmmmyum]

I like leaving debris around, it's cool to see it fly past, and it's interesting to rendezvous with them as a visit

[Omicron314]

I use Procedural Fairings to conceal a probe core and SAS in every 2nd stage so that I can simply de-orbit the object after the payload is delivered.

[Traches]

I do the opposite-- leave as much debris around as possible. Space is more interesting with more stuff in it

[Kromey]

I use retrograde-facing sepratrons on upper stages of launch vehicles that I expect to actually be orbital; the exception is when the upper stage is also used for transfer (e.g. Apollo-style missions), in which case I aim for FRT or direct impact, separate, and adjust my primary vehicle's trajectory as/when needed.

I don't worry about stuff floating beyond LKO, really; I expect Mun and Minmus to collect a few spent stages as my save progresses, and eventually I'll be littering other planets' orbits as well. And I don't use the tracking station to terminate failures that have resulted in debris (I have a Munar orbiter currently in a highly elliptical Kerbin orbit after it ran out of fuel before completing its return, that may or may not eventually get a Mun encounter and either be flung off into interplanetary space or knocked down into Kerbin's atmosphere).

[Anton P. Nym]

I keep LKO clean by deorbiting insertion stages with Sepratrons or by boosting to just short of orbital velocity before separation. The only debris I have there right now comes from, er, rapid unplanned disassemblies.

Cis-Munar space I keep clean by making sure separated stages either collide with the Mun or are ejected out of Kerbin's SOI by gravity assist; I must say the Mun has done a wonderful job of clearing out some debris left by my very early missions flown before I started to take care with debris.

Interplanetary missions, well, I haven't done enough of them to worry about debris; space is big, man. Maybe if I do start a serious effort to colonise Laythe I might take some measures in the Jool system, but otherwise the risks of collision are just too small to pay the delta-V cost of cleaning it up.

-- Steve

[Kromey]

Cis-Munar space...

At the risk of derailing a good thread, I have to ask -- what does this mean? I keep seeing this and similar terms, but can't reconcile in my head the prefix "cis-" with this usage. The closest "translation" I can come up with is "the space between Kerbin and Mun", but I don't know if that's correct or not...

[klappertjes]

I've never had a problem with debris collission, and I think it would be cool to run into that kind of problem, so for now I really don't care about debris.

I just destroyed a space station (out of rage) so that's sure to create some debris in 2000km equatorial orbit, but otherwise I'm not worried.

[Kerbocracy]

I work it out such that my spent stages either fall back to Kerbin or else go on a Kerbin exit trajectory. If you dump stuff into Kerbol orbit you won't encounter it again. Even if you wanted to it would be hard.

[Galileo Kerbonaut]

I always try to make rockets that drop their stages either on Kerbin, the Mun or Minmus, or send them in a huge orbit that doesn't interfere with my space stations or launch trajectories.

[Pds314]

I leave such debris in orbit for future use as target practice. Sometimes I "dock" with it. Sometimes I use a guided missile launched from a spaceplane to smash it to bits. Sometimes I fire unguided rockets at it. Of course, this adds to Kessler syndrome, but the closest I have ever got to random debris by accident is a bit over 1200 meters.

[Anton P. Nym]

At the risk of derailing a good thread, I have to ask -- what does this mean? I keep seeing this and similar terms, but can't reconcile in my head the prefix "cis-" with this usage. The closest "translation" I can come up with is "the space between Kerbin and Mun", but I don't know if that's correct or not...

That's correct. Anything inside the Moon's orbit here is in cis-lunar space.

-- Steve

[Galacticruler]

I just turned off my persistant debris. It helps a TON.

[Specialist290]

At the risk of derailing a good thread, I have to ask -- what does this mean? I keep seeing this and similar terms, but can't reconcile in my head the prefix "cis-" with this usage. The closest "translation" I can come up with is "the space between Kerbin and Mun", but I don't know if that's correct or not...

I believe it's correct in this context, given that it seems to be derived from the real-world term "cislunar." (EDIT: Wow I'm slow today...)

On-topic: I tend to be a fair bit debris-conscious with my own missions as far as the launcher itself goes, and I do try to keep the space around Kerbin itself clean, but I'll admit I tend not to care too much about where my interplanetary transfer stages end up most of the time.

Edited December 4, 2013 by Specialist290

[kiwiak]

Has anyone ever had his ship collided with some random debris in KSP?

[RSF77]

I usually put a strong reaction wheel (using mod parts for larger rockets) on my first or second stage for control during ascent then slap a mechjeb unit on it. After I make orbit and jettison I just switch to it, point retrograde, turn on the engines and switch back to my main vehicle. Pretty much the same thing for any other body or the mun, just make it autonomous capable for at least a minute or two and crash it into the surface.

When solar orbit though I usually don't worry about leaving debris since the chance of ever encountering it again is pretty much nil.

Edited December 5, 2013 by RSF77

[Vanamonde]

(The cis- prefix is the opposite of the more familiar trans- prefix, and comes from Latin. For example, the Roman region of Cisalpine Gaul was Gaul-on-the-near-side-of-the-Alps, and Transapline Gaul was Gaul-on-the-far-side-of-the-Alps. So cislunar space is space within the moon's orbit.

We now return you to the actual topic of this thread, already in progress... )